With thousands of unserved locations scattered throughout Hawaii, the state is eager to start spending its allotted $149.5 million in funding to get all their people connected. As Kauaii Now reports, reaching the 11,924 homes and businesses that are currently without digital coverage means that Hawaii will need to develop unique outreach plans combining an assortment of different technologies. The Connect Kakou project was created to allow the Hawaiʻi Broadband and Digital Equity Office, University of Hawaiʻi, Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and several other state and county agencies to work together to develop deployment plans.
“It’s something that we must have,” said Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke of the Connect Kākou broadband initiative. “Just in the last few days, we’ve had wildfires on many of the different islands, and the first thing that comes up to people’s minds is how do we get communication out? Communication is not something that can be done without connectivity. Connectivity to the internet, connectivity to your phones, connectivity to what is going on around our neighborhoods and around our area.”
The undersea cable running between the islands is the starting point for some of the digital outreach plans, as Kauaii Now reports. However, contractors will need to figure out how best to connect the state’s most isolated and rural residents. The intention is to develop the rollout on a state level while addressing specific work needs on a county of county basis.
NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson spoke positively about the task the state has set for itself. “Generations before us did very big things,” he noted. “They made sure that everybody had electricity, that everybody in the country had water, that we had essential infrastructure. This is our generation’s big infrastructure moment. This is our chance to make sure that we connect everybody in the state and everybody in the country with the tools that they need to succeed in the modern digital economy.”
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